San Diego Downtown

Black and White pictures by QT Luong

The primary shopping and dining areas in San Diego are Horton Plaza and the Gaslamp quarter. Alonzo Horton in the 1870s developed and promoted today's downtown area and is known as the "father of San Diego." The heart of the then-new development was Fifth avenue, but by the 1960s, it had declined into a seedy area that kept developers away. That prevented many historic brick buildings from being destroyed, and since the 1980s, the area underwent an urban renaissance. The centerpiece of that renaissance is the Horton Plaza, designed by California architect Jon Jerde using the "festival marketplace" concept with arches and balconies in postmodern style.

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